Rambi you bought a bunch of downloadable and classic games. They were talking full games at full price similar to how all new games are 60 dollars on psn and never drop in price for ages. Its the same thing. I could buy Shovel Knight, Super Mario Wold, Super Metroid, and Ducktales Remastered all for the price of Killzone Shadowfall. Does this mean Sony should sell KZ for twenty bucks?

We just had MH Tri G on sale for half off or so, Resident Evil Revelations was only ten bucks as was RE The Mercinaries. Atlus had ten bucks off all games. Are these the prices you can't justify? Seems like you could buy three full games for the price of one vita game. How does Sony justify their prices? /s

I think all digital games on all systems need to be priced cheaper than retail. I never buy digital anyways and never will unless its a full game for dirt cheap or a good downloadable game like Shadow Complex, Shovel Knight, or Limbo. I'd never buy a full vita, 3ds, ps4, or xbone game digitally. Its the same price with no resale value, no collectors value, and no physical media to lend around. All three console makers are crazy, hell even steam overcharges on new games. People only mention the sales when you can get a year old game for five bucks. They don't mention buying the new game for 50-60 with no manual, box, disk, and a mandatory online connection. Just saying.

I believe Nintendo wants to go all digital. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if their next console(whether handheld or home) is all digital. They do everything they can to promote digital over retail, and I understand why, but they have some shady practices. Things like withholding retail supply, not dropping prices in line with retail as quickly, games tied to the system instead of the account, are ways to force people to use digital.

Even Iwata says that once people purchase digitally, they are more likely to do so again. Hook em' once, then reel them in.

For the sake of not pissing off the precious retailers.* although they had an excellent deal with SMT IV and FE:A where you bought both and got 30 bucks of credit for free. that was a great promotion and i bought a game i wouldn't have otherwise bought (and enjoyed it)

What is this article talking about? If you buy a digital game from Sony and Microsoft you pay the regular price too. They're all the same. The main reason I see for it to be this way is to not get the stores upset. IF they drop $10 from the price for digital versions of games stores might say we won't sell your games and consoles anymore.

Ya. Never been a fan of digital downloads unless its a mini or something under $5. Because of the way game prices drop sometimes overnight. Most expensive game I bought was oblivion on Xbox for $10 lol and my bf4 ps4 game for $9.99 but doesn't really count I guess cause I have to have my ps3 disc thank god so I don't have to use 100gb of space lol. Or whatever it ends up being.

How many digital sales are enough according to Nintendo? It could be 1 game or it could be 100,000+ games- we do not know-

Their digital sales are rising because The Wii U and recently the 3DS are their fist real effort to cultivate that market- So they had a very low base of digital sales to start with so practically any # is a "rise in digital sales".

How would they know how many people are not buying digital- I have bought/wil buy some digital download only e-shop games (typically $10 and less only) and I bought 1 digital retail game off the eshop at Christmas eve because I was worried I did not have enough for my Son - but I would not do it again as it was a game I wish I cold trade in/sell- I typically keep games I think are good and get rid of the disappointments- but you can t get any "value" if you make a mistake buying a digital retail game-

Also the games are tied to the console not your own account which is archaic and makes no sense for consumers - MSFT and Sony (far more advanced in digital sales don t tie them to the console- As time goes on and more peoples Wii U and/or 3DS's break, get lost or are stolen, there will be more people complaining about the way the games are tied to the console

Naturally business s are there to make money- there is absolutely nothing wrong w that- If they do not they won t exist long- Most people who I see being critical of Nintendo s business practices are doing so because they see vey clearly the mistakes Nintendo are making and do not want to see the Wii U fail or Nintendo continue to make mistakes because it is costing them their reputation and as far as the Wii U goes it is costing them a lot of money

The eShop has been having some great discounts of retail games and indie titles for months now. As for the N games; they don't go down.

I guess its because there's not that much similar games. You need to discount something like CoD: Ghosts, Assassin's Creed, Battlefield, and Batamn - for example - because they all have direct competition. There's variation there. There isn't something essentially similar to Mario or Zelda.

Their 1st party games don't go down at retail quickly either. Some of their games brought used still cost close to what they did new several years ago, particularly in the main entry mario games and zelda, with a few exceptions to the rule.

I still understand what he means. When a Nintendo game goes on sale or is finally discounted, gamers snatch them up because they know the value of the software. It's not just price people. It's replay value and quality.

Everyone knows that certain games for full price are far worth it more than some junk bunk sitting next to it for the EXACT same price. :)

So what ?? The game is good so his price must never go down ? In what world do you think this is fair ??

The fact is by going digital they have far less cost than publishing retail , no manufacturing cost ( box, manual, cart ) not transport cost, no retailer margin...

It make no sense that suddenly a new "value" appear out of nowhere for digital titles, nintendo just want to control your money and they want an absolute control on price because THEY HAVE NO opposition/opponent on their shop.

Same reason why we still can't change our nintendo account from a nintendo device freely when the feature exist on every other console since ages.

There is no "nintendo value" , the only thing here is nintendo enforcing price because they don't want you to act as a client in a market.

Ps: the nintendo games are good and are good games. Their digital prices however , embarassing.

A game becomes vintage by public acceptance /recognition AND time. Nintendo has no right to enforce some added value because they are vintage..... no ,better because they "could" be vintage one day.

"You can resell a Nintendo game for much more than most games"

Untrue. Some nintendo game can cost a bit more when they are vintage ( i do have 2 perfectly preserved copy of zelda 2 NES for example ) But they cost the same than a game from the same time area within another console.

There is like no justification possible for such prices

"Should their digital games cost less? Hell yeah. But probably no more than $10 less than retail if it's quality. "

Well nintendo isn't even capable of doing that.. THAT's The problem right here

A 10-20 years old game with no added value INSIDE (aka changes) got no business being resold at 10 bucks . Whatever its quality .

No offense but i find your line of thinking disturbingly wrong , there is no "superior Nintendo value" compared to legends and hits from Steam and Valve , Sony , Sega , or Microsoft ... it's just guys drinking the koolaid from your Overlords . Same overlord who probably see the lowest digital sales out of the bunch and stiffle everyone on process as a consequence .

Vintage doesnt apply to digital . keep that for way too low disc presses of an obviously popular game , as seen with Nintendo idiocy over Last Story or Xenoblade . And yeah it's sheer idiocy , the games sells , yet they wanna act as if they were taking a risk and some kind of niche publisher like NIS and Atlus .

Etrian Odyssey IV released in Australia last month. $70 on the eShop, $45 at EB Games for a physical copy that would have had to have been put on the card, packaged, shipped, all of that stuff. Someone explain how that's justified.

"Increasing value"? What?

EDIT: After reading the article all the way through it sounds to me like it's a case of "Well people are buying it, so why should we drop the price?" Thanks for caring, Nintendo.

“Since the contents are the same, the company would offer the software at the same price, be it the packaged version or the digital version."

Ummm...the contents aren't the same though. The retail version comes with a box, a manual, and the game which can be resold, thus making it a better value. The digital version comes with the game, and a digital manual which is tied to the purchasers account forever. On top of that, there is no 100% assurance that that game will be available for the next 10, 20, or 30 years, unlike those old atari 2600 games I could boot up if I so desire.

The reason Nintendo's digital strategy is working is because they withhold retail supply to get those people that would purchase day one to get it digitally.

for a start it depreciates in value by 100% as soon as you've bought it. what other non consumable product does that?

and it will be forever tied to your account, or in Nintendo's case, possibly the console. so if your console dies, you're screwed.

but for the publisher it's great. no physical production or shipping costs, no preowned market. and they've got a monopoly on digital sales to boot. so of course they think it's bloody great.

they're getting all the benefits and what about the buyers? no real ownership, no proper manual, if you're lucky there'll be a digital manual, but a physical manual you hold in your hand is easier and more convenient to read than a digital one on your tv. no physical copy that you could trade in later, or sell privately or even give away, should you finish the game and no longer want it or if, shock, it's bloody awful.

given those things, why would we think paying the same price for downloads is anything even approaching value?

even if snow white has been out 50 years, its still the same price it was on its very first release. there is no such thing as a 'sale' to disney. all their films are full price, standard.

it doesnt increase value at all, it only increases the perception of value. snow white should be £2 in every bargain bin in the world by now. but by disney offering it full retail price, at all times, it makes the consumer think it is something new, something fresh, something of such quality that it will never be offered at a discount. when really, its only as valuable as disney make it.

nintendo are doing precisely the same thing, putting their products on a high pedestal, saying that the game is so great, it will never be in a 'sale.' when of course, that is just their ego and greed.

plus, disney deliberately 'drip-feed' their products to the market, in order to keep up demand. nintendo do the same thing.